Democratic Front (DF) did not have a chance to enter the future government, so the decision of its leaders to split is logical, although it is a surprise considering that this political alliance has been active for 11 years, the interlocutors of "Vijesti" assessed.
Three former leaders of that alliance confirmed yesterday that DF is ceasing to exist Andrija Mandic (New Serbian Democracy), Milan Knezevic (Democratic People's Party) i Nebojsa Medojevic (Movement for change).
They said at the press conference that they decided that "everyone should go their own way" and that there was no quarrel, especially not over the distribution of quotas on the electoral list, which, they claim, they did not even come up with. Medojević told Sputnik on Saturday that Milan Knežević, who will be the first on the list, asked for his party to have more deputies.
"Today, as friends, the three of us want to send a new message to Montenegro that in politics you can meet together, but also part ways and go separately towards the same goal," said Mandić at the press conference.
Medojević announced that PzP will go to the elections independently, while Nova and DNP, as their leaders said, will inform the public in a timely manner about the modalities of going to the elections.
Editor at Television Vijesti Radomir Krackovic says that the split between the constituents of the DF is a surprise, given that the DF has acted in a unified manner in recent years, even though at the very beginning, 11 years ago, they were ideologically quite different parties.
"Now I don't see major programmatic differences between PzP on the one hand and Nova and DNP on the other, so this split will certainly not go in their favor in the elections on June 11, or at least in one part of the current DF," he said. Kračković for "Vijesti".
He believes that for the political scene of Montenegro this means further fragmentation, especially in the electorate of the current government, thus even more political players and fights for the same electorate.
"For the current opposition, this does not mean much in terms of gains, because it has long been unable to count on votes from this block, which can only go to other numerous parties of the current government," Kračković said.
Journalist and analyst Željko Pantelić believes that DF has no more reason to exist and that the decision of Mandić, Knežević and Medojević is logical.
"As DF, they didn't have many chances to enter a future Montenegrin government. Now it will be interesting to see how Nova and DNP will reform. Seen through the politicians representing the two parties, DNP has a much better chance of becoming acceptable to Western partners than Nova. On the other hand, it will be interesting to see what Medojević will try to do in order to survive politically, that is, to pass the census in the next elections," Pantelić told "Vijesti".
When asked how all this is related to withdrawal Milo Đukanović, Kračković replied that with the departure of Đukanović and the fall from power of the DPS, the DF and the other parties in power no longer have a permanent excuse for bad policies or wrong moves.
"When you are in power, even if you were not in the government, but you certainly are in depth and in the municipalities, you have to deliver results, otherwise the voters will quickly punish it, as all recent elections show. Even in the last three years, Đukanović often served both the DF and the new government as a kind of "political scarecrow" for their voters, even though he had no real power. So the split of DF is certainly one of the consequences of Đukanović's withdrawal", he said.
He expects that Nova and the DNP will base their election program on the story of reconciliation, like the one in the presidential campaign of Andrija Mandić, but they will also partly return to the story of the protection of Serbs in Montenegro, although he believes that the majority of voters are fed up with national and identity issues. , as shown by the results of the last elections.
"It is indisputable that Nova and the DNP have strong strongholds in the cities where many members of the Serbian people live, but it seems to me that the voters, including those from that people, will decide more in the next elections according to who will promise them more in the economic sense or who will offer more new but serious politicians who are qualified to bring something new and good to this country", says Kračković.
Montenegro advanced in the conquest of freedom
Pantelić reminds that Montenegro has stagnated on the road to European integration, but has progressed, "like never before in its history", in the conquest of freedom, which was best certified by Reporters without Borders in the report on media freedom.
"Montenegro is in 39th place in the world, ahead of Croatia and Slovenia, an EU member, not to mention Serbia and Albania. The ousting of the Đukanović regime and their megaphones, which defended private and party interests for state money, not only enabled Montenegro to move up 24 places on the Reporters Without Borders list, but also for its political offer to become truly pluralistic," he said.
According to him, on June 11, the first elections in Montenegro will take place, which no one defines as historic, and in essence, they are the first elections in the national history where you will not vote against someone, but for someone.
"Djukanovic was a pocket on the Montenegrin bottle of freedom, democracy, the European path. Without him, freedom has already arrived, democracy, with all its weaknesses, uncertainties, childhood illnesses, began to develop and grow, and with the new government, I believe that the European road will become a European highway. "Whoever looks at the situation in Montenegro realistically, without fan glasses, realizes how beneficial Đukanović's defeat was, starting with Đukanović himself and the DPS," Pantelić assessed.
Mandić said yesterday that there have been discussions in the DF for some time on how to continue the political struggle. "We made a decision to continue this political struggle, after the overthrow of Milo Đukanović's regime in 2020 and him personally in the 2023 elections... Today we don't have DPS in power, but we have all the deviations that existed and were installed by DPS in decision-making places" , stated Mandić.
Medojević stated that there are differences between them regarding priorities in politics and that they estimated that it is better for everyone to use their potential on the political market.
He said that all their coalitions at the local level remain in the same relations.
Knežević said that the regime was defeated with great sacrifices, but the anonymous people "who were brought in and appointed as prime minister, ministers" aimed more at settling accounts with the DF than democratizing Montenegro.
The Montenegrin political scene underwent a series of changes after Milo Đukanović resigned from the post of DPS president. DPS is going to the elections with a list on which there are only two with previous ministerial experience, SD will appear without Damir Šehović, SDP without Raško Konjevića who retires from politics..
Only parties that have a strong electorate will survive
In the new government, Kračković sees the Europe Now Movement (PES), Democrats, GP URA and some parties of national minorities, as shown by polls, as well as the mood of the public.
As he added, it will be interesting because the elections will be a kind of purgatory, there will be a lot of lists and some parties will surely disappear from the parliament, and only those that really have strength in the electorate will remain.
Pantelić states that PES is positioned as a kind of social-liberal party with a tendency to be a catch-all party because it has some parts that are extremely populist-social, and some are very liberal.
"The most intriguing is the alliance between the Democrats and the URA. In politics, it is not always, moreover, rarely when 1+1=2, in the sense that coalitions reflect the individual sum of votes of the parties that make it up. If the Democrats and the URA win 15 percent or more of the vote, it will be a great success," Pantelić said.
He believes that differentiation between DNP and Nova would be very useful for Montenegro, without Đukanović they will be able to have a more diverse political portfolio that will not be based only on Serbia and will give people the opportunity to leave the nationally limited area.
"In the end, the parties of the former regime are at a crossroads: will they continue riding on nationalist politics and defending Montenegro from Montenegrins, denying the Constitution of Montenegro, which states that Montenegro is a civil state, or will they turn the page and become a modern European moderate left" , he said.
He believes that, in general, the political stage of Montenegro lacks a center-right party, patriotic and not national, traditional but not clerical, conservative but not populist.
"It's not easy, there aren't many such parties anymore even in developed European democracies," Pantelić said.
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